32 posts from August 2009

August 31, 2009

Chicago's great architectural bookstore, the Prairie Avenue Bookshop, will close its doors at the end of business on Monday, August 31, but the owners are holding out hope that the bookshop can be sold to a buyer who would move it to a new location in Chicago.

"We've sold most of the books," co-owner Wilbert Hasbrouck said in a telephone interview. Deep discounts helped the store dramatically reduce its inventory, from tens of thousands of books to "several thousand," he said. Rare books have been wrapped up and will be sold at auction.

Hasbrouck declined to identity the potential buyer, with whom talks remain in progress, he said. A sale isn't likely to occur before the store closes its doors for the last time at 6 p.m. Monday.

It's a strange day for the bookshop, located at 418 S. Wabash Ave. and in operation for nearly 50 years, to close. Hasbrouck and his wife Marilyn, the bookshop's co-owner, are celebrating their 51st wedding anniversary Monday.

Here's my story from July detailing the bookshop's history and the reasons it's closing.

The California wildfires are posing a serious threat to the historic Mount Wilson Observatory, which was designed by D.H. Burnham & Co, the firm of the great Chicago architect Daniel Burnham. I learned of the observatory's architectural identity in an email from Tim Samuelson, the indispensable cultural historian of the City of Chicago. Ironically, the 163rd anniversay of Burnham's birthday is this Friday. Here is Samuelson's email:

Well... thanks to global warming and degradation of the environment, it looks like there's yet another showdown between natural disaster and a Chicago-related historic landmark. Remember the uncertain drama of the Louis Sullivan cottages in Ocean Springs during Katrina?

As Daniel H. Burnham's birthday approaches this coming Friday in the year of the Plan of Chicago centennial, the fires raging in California are rapidly approaching the Mount Wilson Observatory (above), a landmark of astronomical history, as well as a notable design by D.H. Burnham and Company. Firefighters are quoted as saying it isn't a matter of if the fire will reach Mount Wilson, but a matter of when.

There's more to the observatory's ties to Chicago than the fact that Burnham's firm designed it. The person behind its construction was astronomer George Ellery Hale, son of Burnham client William E. Hale who commissioned the Reliance Building. Supportive of his son's interest in astronomy, the elder Hale built his son a complete observatory behind the family's Burnham & Root-designed mansion at the NE corner of Drexel Boulevard and 46th Street (left). This domed observatory completed in 1891 is the direct ancestor of the Mount Wilson Observatory. (the house still stands - the observatory was demolished long ago) Here's a link to a photo of the old Chicago observatory:

There's been provincial carping--silly, in my view--that Chicago architects have been shut out of the Burnham Plan centennial, what with Zaha Hadid and Ben van Berkel designing the high-profile centennial pavilions in Millennium Park. Please. We live in a global world. And Chicago architects have never been shy about invading architects' turf in other cities.

Now, the supposedly overlooked home team will get its chance to make a strong statement about the future of the city and the region, courtesy of an exhibition that opens Friday.

The show, titled "Big. Bold. Visionary: Chicago Considers the Next Century," is curated by architecture critic and curator Edward Keegan and will open in an odd place--the Chicago Tourism Center, at 72 E. Randolph St., where it will be on view through October. 4. Does the location and the co-sponsorship of the city of Chicago (the other sponsor is the Burnham Plan Centennial Committee) suggest that the show will take a boosterish, rather than critical, view of the city's future? I doubt it, given Keegan's involvement, but we'll see.

The show is said to feature designs for ecologically-driven skyscrapers, a new municipal pier at Northerly Island, and "a high-speed rail system that extends to the airport" (presumably O'Hare). Among the architects whose work will be on display: Carol Ross Barney, Ralph Johnson, John Ronan, Adrian Smith, Joe Valerio and David Woodhouse. Expect to see a model of Smith's plan for an enormous "eco-bridge," (above) extending into Lake Michigan, which was featured on this blog last year..

The show's opening coincides with the 163rd anniversary of Daniel Burnham's birth.

August 28, 2009

The concept of cohousing, which proponents say offers "privacy within the home and community at the doorstep," is going to get a hearing in Chicago this weekend. There may be a real life application of it in Bronzeville. Read more in this news release:

I'm not able to recommend a new film on Daniel Burnham that's premiering next week for two reasons: I haven't seen it and I'm in it, one of the talking heads who comments on the life and work of the great Chicago architect and planner.

But I would like to draw your attention to this film because the filmaker, Judith Paine McBrien, has an impressive track record of previous architectural films and because it will be shown on Wednesday night, September 2 at 7:30 p.m. the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park for free.

Here are the basics about the film, "Make No Little Plans: Daniel Burnham and the American City," from McBrien (at left, a postcard about the film):

It's an hour-long documentary and biography. It explores Burnham’s career and complex legacy as public debate continues today about how and for whom cities are planned. It covers his Chicago projects and his impact on Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Cleveland, Washington, D.C. and Manila.

Gov. Pat Quinn will introduce the film. And, McBrien notes, the Archimedia Workshop (a not-for-profit) "spent a lot of time raising thousands of dollars so we could bring the film to the public on the lakefront- this screening wasn't sponsored by any park or city group."

August 27, 2009

This is Chicago's Year of Big, with the centennial of Daniel Burnham's grand plan for Chicago. But that doesn't mean we should ignore minor gems, particularly when they sparkle as brightly as a little new harbor building on the lakefront.

Unglamorously named and utterly prosaic in function, the $3.1 million DuSable Harbor Building elevates the ordinary to something special, in the finest tradition of Chicago architecture.

What could have been a dumpy concrete box is instead a new shoreline landmark. Well, sort of. Actually, the building vanishes when it's seen from the west looking east. That's just as the architect wanted it.

The architect, David Woodhouse, has been in the news of late as the winner of the controversial design competition for a memorial to Burnham at the Museum Campus. He's already got an impressive track record on the lakefront, including the handsomely traditional visitor pavilions at Buckingham Fountain and the playfully modern Rainbow Park Beach House.

August 26, 2009

Wilbert and Marilyn Hasbrouck, who own and run the Prairie Avenue Bookshop, have given a lot to Chicago over the years. Their bookshop has been a favorite place to browse through the latest architectural titles and meet colleagues. The Hasbroucks also made a significant contribution with their Prairie School Review, which chronicled that seminal Midwestern movement long before it was the subject of documentaries on PBS. And that's to say nothing of Wilbert Hasbrouck's work as a preservation architect, which includes the restoration of Louis Sullivan's Peoples Savings Bank in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

August 25, 2009

There are now two mysteries surrounding the Burj Dubai, the almost-complete world's tallest building in the United Arab Emirates that was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill of Chicago and SOM partner Adrian Smith, who has since left to head his own firm.

Mystery number one has long been exactly how tall this tower really is. Probably somewhere around 2,600 feet--equivalent to the John Hancock Center piled atop the Sears Tower. But the developer, Emaar Properties, has never been specific, in part, it is thought, to discourage other would-be tallest towers from being able to beat the Burj.

Mystery number two is when the tower will be finished and open to the public. For a while, it looked like this September was a strong possibility, with hints dropped that the date would be Sept 9--thus, 9/9/09. Then, last month, the arabianbusiness.com web site, quoted an unnamed senior architect, said that the public opening would be Dec. 2.

But I checked out that story with a spokewoman for Emaar and she wrote back last night that the company has not finalized the launch date. "What you've read is speculation," she wrote.

August 24, 2009

Many of you have expressed interest in the new stretch of the Chicago riverwalk that I wrote about back in June and have asked when it would be complete. Well, it's finally finished--late, of course, but that's always the way with construction projects, whether it's a home rehab or a skyscraper.

I strolled the riverwalk this morning on the way into work and enjoyed the fountains of the Chicago Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the reflective canopy beneath the Wabash Avenue Bridge (at left, the canopy beneath the Michigan Avenue Bridge), a handsome variety of plants and the sight of baby crawling on the sidewalk. Oh yes, there was the river, too. The point is, the riverwalk is a very urban experience, with lots of "incidents" to engage you along the way.

The new stretch runs from State Street to an area just east of the Michigan Avenue Bridge. From there, you can take the existing riverwalk all the way to Lake Michigan.

August 23, 2009

For months now, the city officials trying to bring the 2016 Summer Olympic Games to Chicago and the preservationists trying to save buildings co-designed by architect Walter Gropius on the proposed Olympic Village site have been on a collision course. And there was little doubt about who would get their way and who would not.

A visit last week to the city-owned, 37-acre site, formerly Michael Reese Hospital, did little to dispel the impression that everything on the campus is doomed except for the main Reese building (left), a 102-year-old Prairie Style structure that city officials have promised to spare.

Chain-link fencing surrounded the Reese complex, from 26th to 31st Streets near South Lake Shore Drive. The once-vibrant hospital campus resembled a ghost town, with security guards racing about in small white cars with whirling yellow lights on their roofs.

But this bleak picture, which emerged after the city awarded demolition contracts for the old Reese hospital site, belied some hopeful signs. Although the city's landmarks commission voted against placing the Reese campus on the National Register of Historic Places on Aug. 6, for example, some commission members and staff commented that a proposal that suggested saving fewer buildings might win their support.

Last week, as if on cue, a respected advocacy group, Landmarks Illinois, unveiled a plan calling for seven of the campus' 29 buildings to be reused (at left, a comparison of the plan to the official Olympic Village plan; click on the image to expand). In addition, Chicago architects DeStefano Partners have proposed their own alternative village plan to the city's Olympic organizers. The plan, it turns out, would preserve only one of the Gropius buildings, but the architects stress it can be modified.

What does all this add up to? A tiny opening for good planning, which would create lively streets, save selected buildings and offer a diversity of building types, uses and people. The stakes are enormous. Whether Chicago gets the Olympics or not, the redevelopment of the Reese campus will be one of Chicago's signature undertakings of the early 21st Century. Blowing it with business-as-usual design should not be an option.